Where girls are first but Jesus is scarce

Jesus.

Jesus.

Jesus.

Jesus.

Jesus.

THERE. AS FAR AS I CAN TELL, I am now even with the very extensive website of Marian High School in Omaha, Neb., in mentioning Jesus Christ.

Remember Him?

If that's any indication of how prominent Jesus Christ and the authentic teaching of His Church is at the all-girls high school run by the Servants of Mary, a Catholic parent could do just as well in their daughter's faith formation by sending her to the local public high school -- which, generally, you can count on to be an excellent one, by the way.

And that Catholic parent of a teen-age girl could save quite a wad of Benjamins every year as well. Certainly enough to go a very long way toward financing four years at, say, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Which has a nationally lauded Catholic student center, by the way.

Mrs. Favog and I have been volunteering in parish youth ministry in Omaha for a long time now. As in, many of the first kids we worked with are now in their 30s.

Not to pick on Marian (because, God knows, it is more the rule than the exception in the Catholic high school world, from what I hear), but in our experience, if there's some serious teen-age, angst-ridden challenging to be done of some really basic, really plain teachings of the Catholic Church in youth group, there's a Marian girl behind it somewhere.

Or a Creighton Prep boy.

SO, YOU HAVE TO ASK . . . what is up with this Catholic School Thang? Are parents that clueless about schools that faithless, or are kids being kids and there ain't no dang thing that can be done about it?

Or is it all about prestige and tradition with a lot of parents, and not so much about Jesus? If at all.

I don't think it's unreasonable, as an adult Roman Catholic, to really wonder what Catholic schools are about anymore, and whether that happens to matter to anyone in charge. If spiritual results could be quantified, tested and reported -- and if Catholic parents and Catholic clerics worried about them at all -- my years-long observation leads me to suspect there would be a massive uproar and subsequent "No Christ Left Behind" initiative from the U.S. bishops.

Naw . . . instead we get annual PR campaigns and fund-raising appeals. In other words: You can bulls*** some of the people most of the time, but most of the people don't give a rip.

Amy Welborn, over at Open Book, has a thread going about Catholic-school angst. It's WAAAAAAAY more active than a similar one for I Heart Catholic Schools. F'rinstance:

I attended a Catholic high School, Schulte HS in Terre haute IN. The school was staffed in part by the Sisters of Providence. We were taught that it was undesirable and supersticious to pray before the Blessed Sacrament. We were discouraged from saying the Rosary. In religion Class the Priest, Fr. Godecker, told us that healing from the Anointing of the Sick was "too magical" and that sacraments sybolized community concern. We voted on the Real Presence and Transubstanciation, and they lost. The school was closed for financial reasons, people weren't sending their kids there. That's also where I learned to smoke pot, drink alcohol and commit several sins of the flesh. It too, was a classist institution.

My Kids went to Holy Family in New Albany. They are now Adults, in their early twenties. They didn't know why we would venerate relics. They didn't know to invoke the intercession of saints. They had no concept of the Eucharist as more than a community memorial feast. They were there on tuition assistance, and were treated a second class by teachers and other students, who somehow found out that they required assistance. More classism.

I dis-recommend Catholic Schools now. There are some good ones, but very few.

Posted by: Mitch S. at Jan 29, 2007 9:29:52 AM